Trump Campaign Denies Press Credentials To Bloomberg News, Claiming ‘Bias’ Against The President

The Trump campaign said Monday that it would no longer credential journalists with Bloomberg News for campaign events, accusing the news organization of “bias” against the president.

Bloomberg News faced a journalistic quandary when its owner, former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, decided to jump into the 2020 Democratic primary last month. In a widely criticized decision, editor-and-chief John Micklethwait announced that the newsroom would continue its tradition of not investigating the personal life and finances of Bloomberg, and would extend the same policy to his Democratic opponents.

However, Micklethwait noted that Bloomberg News would continue to investigate the Trump administration.

The news outlet’s decision was intended to avoid conflict of interest in the Democratic primary.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement Monday that the outlet was exhibiting “preferential reporting policies” and announced that “since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events.”

“We will determine whether to engage with individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News on a case-by-case basis,” Parscale said. “This will remain the policy of the Trump campaign until Bloomberg news publicly rescinds its decision.”

In a statement to CNN on Monday, Micklethwait said, “we have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

This is not the first time the Trump campaign has refused to credential reporters or block them from events. During the 2016 election, journalists from major outlets, including The Washington Post, were temporarily barred from campaign events after publishing tough coverage of Trump’s rallies and campaign.

Trump announced in June 2016 that the campaign would not credential reporters from The Washington Post. Throughout the election, reporters from Politico, BuzzFeed News, HuffPost, the Des Moines Register, and other outlets were also occasionally denied credentials or banned or removed from events.